Fall of Assad leaves Putin isolated and powerless
Posted By: Moritz55, 12/8/2024 11:05:50 AM
Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown, fleeing Damascus after a rapid rebel advance. But the Syrian dictator is far from the only president likely to be despairing today, for Vladimir Putin is another big loser here. For Putin, the collapse of the Syrian regime and removal of Assad from power poses two critical problems. Firstly, it represents a critical strategic loss. Secondly, it represents a stark decline in Russia’s global prestige. Russia now seems almost certain to permanently lose both its naval base at Tartus and its air base at Latakia, its only such bases in the Middle East. The loss of Tartus is particularly painful, as the base allowed Russia to
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For Pete’s Sake…Enough!
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The joke floating around X since Trump started announcing nominations was that our excitement for each appointee should be directly inverse to how much the main stream media freaks out. The more negative the coverage, the more “unqualified” the pick-of-the-day deemed, the more hopeful we should be of an America-First future.
My current favorite? Politico's recent article titled “Pete Hegseth’s Crusade to Turn the Military into a Christian Weapon.”
Because, in case you forgot, being a white, straight, Christian male - your average American man - is now a “threat"
The US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) appears to have wiped out the alleged BM-21 Grad launcher in Zaporizhzhia, although the video has not been verified. If true, this wouldn't be the first time Ukraine has successfully used the HIMARS against Russia, having destroyed an S-300/S-400 missile system last June. Just last month, President Joe Biden agreed that Ukraine could use long-range US missiles on Russia, and it seems President Zelensky is taking him up on the offer.
How thin is the line between hero and vigilante? It is razor thin, as the trial of Daniel Penny has shown.
Penny is a white, former Marine who put Jordan Neely, a Black man, in a six-minute choke hold in the New York subway in May 2023. Neely died after the incident, and prosecutors charged Penny with killing him. On Monday, a jury acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide. A second-degree manslaughter charge against Penny was tossed out Friday after the jury couldn't reach a verdict.
Reports on the deadly incident seemed to divide Americans over racial issues: privileged white man versus homeless Black man.
New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew said Wednesday that "very qualified" and "reliable" sources believe the mystery drones populating the Garden State's skies are originating from an Iranian "mothership" parked off the U.S. East Coast. "Here is the real deal," the GOP lawmaker told Fox News' Harris Faulkner.
"I'm on the Transportation Committee, on the Aviation Subcommittee, and I've gotten to know people. And from very high sources, very qualified sources, very responsible sources. I'm going to tell you… Iran launched a mothership probably about a month ago that contains these drones. That mothership is off the east coast of the United States of America."
In the eyes of the world, America is back
thanks to Donald Trump — whether they
like it or not 7 replies
thanks to Donald Trump — whether they
like it or not 7 replies
The reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris also marked the de facto coming out of Donald Trump as leader of the free world.
His overbearing handshake with French President Emmanuel Macron sent a powerful message to the rest of the world. America is back, whether they like it or not.
As Trump is feted by world leaders and royalty in Paris, holds preliminary peace talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and sends his envoy to the Middle East, the inauguration next month seems like a mere formality. Joe Biden is a pitiful afterthought in history.
Daniel Penny has been found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway car in 2023.
Penny, 26, pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
The judge dismissed the second-degree manslaughter charge against Penny on Friday after jurors said they could not come to a unanimous decision. The jury could only consider the negligent homicide charge if Penny was cleared of manslaughter, which is what the dismissal did.
Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown, fleeing Damascus after a rapid rebel advance. But the Syrian dictator is far from the only president likely to be despairing today, for Vladimir Putin is another big loser here.
For Putin, the collapse of the Syrian regime and removal of Assad from power poses two critical problems. Firstly, it represents a critical strategic loss. Secondly, it represents a stark decline in Russia’s global prestige.
Russia now seems almost certain to permanently lose both its naval base at Tartus and its air base at Latakia, its only such bases in the Middle East. The loss of Tartus is particularly painful, as the base allowed Russia to
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is trying to "strong-arm" the jury in the Daniel Penny case into deciding on a verdict by dismissing manslaughter charges when they appeared deadlocked, former U.S. assistant attorney Andy McCarthy says. "Bragg added a baseless recklessness charge to the indictment so the jury would have two counts, increasing the odds of conviction by giving the jury something to compromise on," McCarthy wrote in National Review. The manslaughter charge required prosecutors to prove that Penny acted with recklessness when he put mentally ill homeless man Jordan Neely in a chokehold on May 1, 2023. Neely had barged onto a subway car while high on drugs, threatening
Silent Cal Speaks
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Calvin Coolidge was taciturn by nature, it’s true. But the nickname obscures important elements of his life and career.
For example, did you know that Coolidge starred in what is today known as Franklin Roosevelt’s medium, radio? Or that as president, he gave hundreds of press conferences and established “a record for speechmaking in the last two decades,” according to the New York Times? Or that Coolidge wrote his own speeches? Or that his Autobiography stands as “the forgotten classic of presidential writing,” in the words of historian Craig Fehrman?
“The words of the President have an enormous weight,” Coolidge wrote, “and ought not to be used indiscriminately.”
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston recently became the latest Democratic leader to engage in a chest-pounding call to arms in resistance to the incoming Trump administration's plan to deport people who entered the United States unlawfully.
While a post-election poll by YouGov for CBS News shows that a massive 73% of adults want President-elect Donald Trump to prioritize the repatriation of illegal migrants, the mayor pledged to not only have Denver police "stationed at the county line to keep (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) out" but also that "you would have 50,000 Denverites there."
The Biden administration has made a precedent-setting arrest related to anti-climate change activities this fiscal year, highlighted in a new report that shows a ramped-up enforcement effort against environmental offenses. On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final report on enforcement efforts under President Biden, which detailed how climate-related penalties were enforced this fiscal year.
After a screaming match between Acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe and Texas Rep. Pat Fallon erupted at a Thursday House hearing on the attempted assassination attempts against President-elect Donald Trump, new details are emerging about the circumstances that sparked the outburst.
Several Secret Service sources question whether Rowe has perjured himself during the explosive exchange.
The face-off occurred during the final meeting of the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Trump when Fallon produced a photo of Rowe standing behind President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at a 9/11 memorial event in New York City in September. Trump and Vice President-elect
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Bill Clinton: I’m Open to Discussing
Preemptive Pardon for Hillary Before Trump
Takes Office 36 replies
Preemptive Pardon for Hillary Before Trump
Takes Office 36 replies
Former President Bill Clinton said Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that he was open to discussing a potential preemptive pardon for his wife Hillary Clinton with President Joe Biden.
Co-host Sunny Hostin said, “Do you think it would be wise of President Biden to preemptively pardon any potential targets? What about your wife, Hillary Clinton? She apparently is on Kash Patel’s list.” Clinton said, “They’ve got a problem with her because first, she didn’t do anything wrong. Second, she followed the rules exactly as they were written. Third, Trump’s State Department — Trump’s State Department — found — remember how the emails were such a big issue in 2016?
This is my final column for The New York Times, where I began publishing my opinions in January 2000. I’m retiring from The Times, not the world, so I’ll still be expressing my views in other places. But this does seem like a good occasion to reflect on what has changed over these past 25 years.
What strikes me, looking back, is how optimistic many people, both here and in much of the Western world, were back then and the extent to which that optimism has been replaced by anger and resentment. And I’m not just talking about members of the working class who feel betrayed by elites;
Climate scientists recently discovered that they’ve been underestimating the impact of a particular organic compound in the atmosphere, and the oversight’s significance is so profound that it’s left existing climate models completely obsolete. As Jo Nova writes, “This is so big, it may change the sacred ‘climate sensitivity’ of the whole Earth”.
Isoprene is what’s known as a volatile organic compound, or a VOC, and “has a recognized role in protecting plants against many abiotic stresses” like “heat stress…drought…[and] oxidative stress” with trees being the greatest emitters. (When the chemical isoprene interacts with other compounds in the atmosphere, the products are a number of secondary organic aerosols.)
Kentanji Brown Jackson may not know what a woman is, but she knows what it is to go to bed one night as just an ordinary Supreme Court justice and to wake up the next day as a Broadway star. Yup, she’s hitting the Great White Way (or, maybe, in her case, the Great Black Way) to fulfill a childhood dream: taking a turn in a Broadway musical.
Interestingly, the particular musical she’s chosen, “& Juliet,” is a tawdry pro-transgender show. I think we can now guess how Jackson will vote on Tennessee’s “no ‘gender-affirming’ care on minors” law.
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has donated a staggering $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's inaugural fund.
The deal was reportedly agreed last month when the Facebook boss had a surprise dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, which has become the hub for his fledgling administration.
The meeting did caused shock after Trump's angry stance against Facebook and claims that Zuckerberg should be in prison. However, it seems the pair have put their differences aside as the Meta CEO has promised a large paycheck, according to the Wall Street Journal. t's also claimed Zuckerberg gave a demonstration on the company's latest invention, Ray Ban Smart Glasses, then gave them as a gift to Trump.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren outrageously sympathized with the killer of former UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — and others who cheered the murderer on — claiming “people can only be pushed so far,” before condemning the violence. “The visceral response from people across the country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system,” Warren (D-Mass.) told the Huffington Post in an interview. “Violence is never the answer, but people can only be pushed so far.” In a subsequent statement, the Massachusetts senator added: “Violence is
During remarks at an Equal Voice Foundation event this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chastised Americans for electing President-elect Donald Trump ratheTrudeau lamented the fact that they had two opportunities to do so—in 2016 with Hillary Clinton and in 2024 with Kamala Harris—but voted instead for Trump both times.
"No, it shouldn't be that way. It wasn't supposed to be that way. We were supposed to be on a steady, if difficult sometimes, march towards progress. And yet, just a few weeks ago, the United States voted for a second time to not elect its first womanr than the country's "first woman president."
MONROE, Mich. — In a packed union hall outside Detroit, a worker shifts the conversation from policy to the personal, quizzing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on his knowledge of Michigan, the state he only recently started calling home. “Mayor Pete — Secretary Pete, I apologize,” one auto worker yelled from the crowd. “Now that you’re a Michigander, who do the Lions play Sunday?” (Snip) Though Buttigieg has publicly and privately stated that he won’t make any decisions about his future until after the Biden administration ends on Jan. 20, he has already fielded calls from Michigan Democrats urging him to
Christopher Wray Is Reportedly Preparing
a Nasty Surprise for Donald Trump and
Kash Patel 24 replies
a Nasty Surprise for Donald Trump and
Kash Patel 24 replies
The good news first: As RedState has been reporting, Christopher Wray is on his way out as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). President-elect Donald Trump called it a "great day for America as it will end the Weaponization of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice" and promised his new administration "will now restore the rule of law for all Americans."
Trump also signaled his support for Kash Patel, his nominee to succeed Wray as FBI director.
"We want our FBI back, and that will now happen," Trump wrote, as he ended his post, adding: "I look forward to Kash Patel’s confirmation,
The mysterious drones that have been tormenting New Jersey residents for weeks could be part of a top-secret government program, security experts told The Post Tuesday — as lawmakers push for answers over the troubling sightings.
The feds have been mum about the daily drone activity in Morris, Passaic, Bergen and Hunterdon counties and beyond since the gizmos were first spotted on Nov. 18.
But several experts said the US government might be behind the unsettling flights — which could be part of a super-secret military program meant to test new hardware before it hits the battlefield.
There are certain behaviors we should not tolerate from government officials, elected, appointed, or hired. We shouldn't tolerate any kind of criminal activity or graft. And we shouldn't tolerate petulant displays of childish pique.
That last bit is precisely what we saw during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday when Postmaster General Louis DeJoy threw a tantrum (Snip) DeJoy told McCormick, “You’re talking to yourself” before covering his ears.
What is this guy, 12 years old? I wouldn't have put up with this from my kids when they were three. Why should we put up with this from the United States Postmaster?
San Diego County is set to introduce 'radical' new sanctuary laws to avoid cooperation with ICE and other federal immigration authorities.
The laws are seen as direct defiance toward Donald Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, who has singled out San Diego for its massive illegal migrant problems amid plans of mass deportation.
However, the San Diego sheriff on Tuesday defied a new policy to limit cooperation.
San Diego County supervisors voted to prohibit its sheriff's department from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the federal agency's enforcement of civil immigration laws, including those that allow for deportations.